“An acute portrait of loneliness.”

In recent years, the spotlight has increasingly shone on male fictional characters being examined from a mental health perspective; the oft discussed and criticized Joker is one such example. However, Anne Émond’s Peak Everything eschews predictability by taking a fresh approach to mental health issues, with protagonist Adam (Patrick Hivon) suffering from, alongside bouts of depression, eco-anxiety.

This intriguing premise also examines the interactions Adam has with his male friends and his father, as he describes himself as feeling sad and in need of a therapeutic solar lamp to combat his eco-anxiety. He requires help to operate the lamp and speaks to Tina (Piper Perabo), a sympathetic tech support operator. This interaction impacts Adam’s life in unforeseen ways over the course of the film.  Part rom-com, part psychological character study, Peak Everything will draw audiences in through the warmth of ‘nice guy’ Adam, but despite its charming threads the film is not consistent in its treatment of its overlapping storylines, and therefore fails to be memorable.

Set in Quebec, the film’s French title is Amour Apocalypse, which only presents one side of the story, as Adam is one of those seemingly simple yet complex individuals. His young assistant at the kennel he owns takes advantage of his good nature, and Adam is prone to going off on a tangent with his doomsday existential philosophies (which in this age of climate crisis could become reality). Unfortunately, the film struggles in trying to decide whether to be light-hearted or fully committed to the dark side.

Highlighting the film’s positives, it must be said that Peak Everything scratches below the surface of male fragility and lack of communication. Whilst Adam’s emotions are unfiltered, he readily admits to feeling sad – which is frowned upon by the men in his life. Hopefully, the film will encourage more open dialogue to detect any mental health concerns from the outset. There is almost a sense of pity reserved for Adam, and as such he feels more comfortable sharing his problems with an unknown stranger, which teases the film’s proximity to Spike Jonze’s Her,  AI and other services employed to help lonely people on the internet.

But this is not that type of film, and its overarching themes are often muddled. Equally, this is not a simple case of an isolated man falling under the spell of an artificially constructed symbiont. Instead, Peak Everything is an acute portrait of loneliness. Adam may be a pushover but as time progresses he makes increasingly bolder choices about his life and learns to stand up for his convictions. As such, Peak Everything depicts a degree of arrested development in its resemblance to a coming-of-age tale involving a man in his mid-forties. These aspects seem similar to The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but Peak Everything avoids extracting its humor from over-the-top slapstick scenes, instead finely balancing it with the bleak introspection whenever Adam’s world comes tumbling down.

This portrait of a man child is effective due to the endearing but quirky tone imbued. Hivon conveys the right amount of sympathy for audiences to relate to Adam’s likeable persona, and his performance lights up the screen even during moments of despair, as he captures the mood perfectly through his expressions; truly one of those instances of inspired casting.

Yet the film struggles at times under the weight of all the life issues Adam is faced with, including a love interest and familial issues to contend with his mental health problems and loneliness. When the film does work, it manages to make the audience feel for Adam, particularly as he attempts to connect with his father and tries to understand himself. However, there are pacing issues in this otherwise enjoyable film, as it attempts to reconcile Émond’s decision to position an eco-existential crisis within a tale of the absurd. This results in several occasions in which the film’s momentum switches, meaning that its impactful messaging will eventually get lost in the ether.